Why do humans start getting body odor after they go through puberty?
In: Biology
Basically (the way I was taught this at least) you have two major types of sweat glands, apocrine and eccrine. Sweat produced by eccrine glands is mostly water. Apocrine sweat is more oily and contains a whole bunch of other stuff (which I won’t get into). So bacteria can metabolize the components of apocrine sweat far more readily.
Apocrine glands (which are heavily concentrated in your pits and groin) are stimulated by sex hormones, the levels of which rise sharply during puberty. So you get an assload of oily sweat, which is then colonized by bacteria, who generate foul odors.
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